Pinched households are more likely to rent privately, be young, live alone and have recently moved and live in London, it added.

Laura Gardiner, an analyst at the Resolution Foundation who carried out the research, said: ‘The majority of the housing pinched are in work but on low and middle incomes, leaving little left over after housing costs to spend on other essentials.

‘With house prices and rents rising in some parts of the country, interest rates expected to start to go up and income growth remaining weak, we should be concerned about the ability of this group to absorb additional pressure on their household budgets from higher mortgage payments and rents.

‘It is vital that more money is invested in the supply of new housing in order to drive down costs, otherwise we can expect to see a steady rise in the number of households that are 'housing pinched' over the coming years.’

As many as 11 per cent of working London households fall into this bracket, compared to three per cent in the North East and Northern Ireland, it found.

The majority of the 'housing pinched' are working households (Source: Resolution Foundation)

Meanwhile working single households with no children have an 11 per cent chance of being housing pinched, dropping to six per cent for single households with children and couple families with children.

Meanwhile, a separate report suggested that rents in England and Wales are now back on the increase in real terms, after having recorded below-inflation increases since June 2013.

The report from lettings network LSL Property Services, which owns national chains Your Move and Reeds Rains, said the average monthly rent across England and Wales is now £753.

Earlier this week, the Bank of England said it expects the pace of house price inflation to ease in the coming months, so that by spring next year, prices are edging up by around 0.5 per cent a month rather than increases seen this year of around 1 per cent a month.

But the Bank also said that there is ‘more uncertainty about the path for the housing market in the near term’ than there was a few months ago.

A third study offered further evidence that squeezed budgets are starting to take their toll.

UK household debt has more than quadrupled since 1990, despite interest rates being at historic lows, a report out on Thursday showed.

Strain: 1.6 million households will have less than half of their disposable income left each month once they have paid the rent or monthly mortgage payments, the Resolution Foundation said

The study came with a warning that the high levels of debt being serviced by Britons posed a ‘serious threat’ to the economic recovery, especially as rates are due to start rising next year.

In 1990, total household debt in the UK stood at £347billion, but it soared by 314 per cent to £1,437billion in 2013, with people in their thirties and forties carrying most of its weight, according to financial research firm Verum.

While in the past those aged 35 to 44 have been the main drivers of economic growth, they are now the age group with the highest level of debt, burdened by mortgages and struggling to pay them back amid low wage growth, Verum said.